AAA fore­casts in­crease in Thanks­giv­ing trav­el­ers

31,000 more Mary­lan­ders ex­pected to be on move

Nearly 31,000 more Mary­lan­ders will travel this Thanks­giv­ing hol­i­day, AAA Mid-At­lantic said to­day, a 3 per­cent in­crease over last year and the high­est travel vol­ume pre­dicted in more than a decade.

Na­tion­ally, 48.7 mil­lion Amer­i­cans are ex­pected to travel at least 50 miles from home — a 1.9 per­cent in­crease over last year. AAA de­fined the hol­i­day pe­riod as Nov. 23 through Nov. 27.

An­im­prov­ing econ­omy has en­cour­aged more fam­i­lies to drive, fly and travel by train, said Rag­ina Cooper Averella, the public and gov­ern­ment af­fairs man­ager for AAA Mid-At­lantic. Fac­tors in­clude ris­ing wages and in­creases in con­sumer con­fi­dence and spend­ing, she said.

“Con­sis­tent with what we’ve seen for other hol­i­days through­out this year, Thanks­giv­ing is not dis­ap­point­ing,” she said. “Pos­i­tive eco­nomic fac­tors as well as rel­a­tively low gas prices could be play­ing a sig­nif­i­cant role.”